Red Wing Shoes - Denimhunters

Exclusive Shop Review: Vater&Sohn

After months of industry buzzing, on the 1st of March Hamburg’s new premium denim retailer Vater&Sohn finally opened for business. Vater&Sohn has from day 1 set out to join the big league of the European denim retail scene. The shop is located the fifth largest city in Europe, it has an impressive start up selection of brands including 3sixteen, Rising Sun & Co., Indigofera, Red Wing Shoes, and Filson, and it is run by three hardcore and perfectionist denim enthusiasts with more experience than you could imagine. Vater&Sohn is the realisation of a dream; although the concept may at first seem familiar, no one has done it quite like this before.

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Published on 19 March 2013 Leave a Comment

Red Wing Shoes Shop Amsterdam: 2nd Shoe Care Day

Yesterday, on Saturday the 16th of March, Red Wing Heritage held the second ‘shoe care day’ in the Amsterdam shop. Standing in the store front for eight hours straight, shop manager Mitch de Vries and Red Wing Heritage representative Matthijs van Meurs serviced customers’ beloved boots free of change. Quite a spectacle it was with beautifully worn in boots lined up in the big window.

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Published on 17 March 2013 1 Comment

Trend Report: Bread & Butter Winter 2013 – The Japanese Invasion

Bread & Butter President Karl-Heinz Müller can look back at a very successful January edition of his ‘tradeshow for selected brands’. Taking place for the 8th time in the majestic hangars of the old Tempelhof airport, Bread & Butter is definitely on the rise. With 560 brands exhibiting and only 12% of these being German (in addition to 7 out of 10 of all guests being non-Germans) Bread & Butter’s position as the leading international fashion trade platform is undisputed. The most noticeable growing group of international visitors were the Japanese. Along with the boom of Japanese top brands exhibiting at the show, the number of Japanese visitors has doubled. “We’re very delighted by this development since Japan is still an essential indicator when it comes to quality and trends of the future,” says Mr. Müller. More than ever Bread & Butter is about quality over quantity.

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Published on 26 January 2013 1 Comment

Red Wing 8268: 11″ Abilene Rough-Out Engineer

8268 02 01 Red Wing 8268: 11 Abilene Rough Out Engineer Last week, our Dutch friends at the Amsterdam Red Wing Shoes store announced this amazingly beautiful 11″ Engineer boot formerly exclusive to the Japanese Heritage collection – now available at European Red Wing Shoe stores. The styles is allotted 8268 and the leather is an oiled tanned extremely light Abilene Rough-Out in an almost white colour tone. Additionally, the 8268 has steel toecap and a heavy-weight Neoprene Cord sole just like the 2972 and the classic 2268. Have a closer look at it here.

Published on 22 December 2012

Shop Review: VMC

Switzerland: the world’s multilingual neutral ‘bank reserve’ famously known for its fine chocolate, watches and most recently Roger Federer. As the largest city with nearly 400.000 inhabitants (and a metropolitan are of 1.8 million), Zurich is the economic and cultural powerhouse of the country. The city is also home to one of Europe’s most well-stocked denim shops: VMC.

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Published on 17 December 2012

Highlight of the Week: Red Wing Event in Brund

After weeks of waiting and preparing, the highly advertised Red Wing event in Brund went down last Thursday. With perfect winter weather, 10 kilos of grilled gourmet Épicé merguez sausages, plenty of cold Budweisers, and over 50 attending registred guests all wearing Red Wings, it’s an understatement to call it a success. To those of you who couldn’t make it, here’s a recap of the night.

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Published on 10 December 2012 3 Comments

Exclusive Interview with Dave Hill of the Red Wing Shoe Company

‘What’s going to be the next new thing from Red Wing Shoes – how is the brand going to stay ahead of its competitors with new innovative styles while remaining honest to its core values?’ The man with the answer is Dave Hill, director of product development for the Heritage division of Red Wing Shoes. In 2005, with 31 years of experience under his belt indirectly taking part in the production of Red Wing boots, Dave left the S.B. Foot Tanning Company and joined Red Wing to help build the international business with the Heritage collection. Back in October, I met Dave when he visited Copenhagen. Here’s his story.

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Published on 26 November 2012 Leave a Comment

Shop Review: Kersting & Henschel

Berlin is one of my favourite denim destinations. Most of the hype is focused on the three main denim suppliers of the city centre that with individual ‘themes’ stock the cream of the world’s most premium brands. On Saturday the 17th earlier this month, the former residence of the German Kaisers and part of the Berlin metropolitan area, Potsdam was put on the German denim map with the grand opening of Kersting & Henschel. Curious to find out more about the new boys in town, stockists of brands like Momotaro, Iron Heart, Eat Dust, Indigofera, The Flat Head, Filson, and Red Wing Shoes, I had co-owner of the shop, Torsten Kersting answer a few questions.

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Published on 23 November 2012 4 Comments

Red Wings in Exhibition

The Red Wing exhibition in Brund was launched last Monday and so far 3 pairs have been handed in, and more are on their way. Visit the shop to have a closer look at the 6″ Round Toe Clapton Classic in Oro-iginal or the 899 from the early 90s (below) in the 2nd Oro-Russet leather that only existed for a few years before the Oro-iginal was introduced in 1996. You can read more the red leather in the Nouvelle de Nîmes Nº 2.

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Published on 15 November 2012 Leave a Comment

The Passion of a Brand Strategist

Allan Kruse is one of the leading Danish brand strategists and co-founder of Spandet, a taskforce within fashion and lifestyle industries. Working primarily with branding, retail and marketing, Allan will instantly identify the blind spots of your business. He also has a keen eye on fashion and trends, and most importantly (to us at least) he has a wealth of knowledge about denim and denim history, which you’ll always notice in what he’s wearing. This morning I had the pleasure of meeting Allan in a professional setting, but we managed to find time to talk a little about our shared hobby as well.

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Published on 9 November 2012 3 Comments